week 4, charlina maxwell

 Define rasquachismo or domesticana, and include a personal example with image.

Rasquachismo can be defined in many different ways, and seems to have an evolving definition based on the ways it’s used, or the things it can describe. Rasquachismo is a theory on aspects of chicano perspectives, coined by scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto. Basically he is talking about an underdog’s perspective, an art style of repurposing, making the most of what very little there is to use. I have never considered this but after reading about it plenty of examples come to mind, and in many ways rasquachismo is not only a chicano production. It is the art of all poor populations everywhere, I have seen it all around Mexico, but also in poor neighborhoods of the Bahamas, Jamaica, and my neighborhood of West Oakland. People making art projects out of recycled materials, trash, and broken things. Often these renderings have quite a lot of charm despite their humble beginnings. Rasquachismo can be considered in three ways, a recycled art project made of old things hanging out in the backyard, a dollar store bracelet with an image of the Virgen de Guadalupe, or even a fine art creation. Some have stated that rasquachismo is a form of conservation and survival, it has a community and familial aspect, it is born of a group of people at the bottom, which again can be seen in the disenfranchised populations all over the world. Domesticanna is an extension of this term that can be applied to chicana art, especially because women who run households are the best recyclers on the planet. But this is also rasquachismo through a feminist lens, it is a rebellion against traditional gender roles the way rasquachismo is a rebellion against traditional definitions of what is creative and what is fine art, even what is beautiful. These essential perspectives are all a part of a shifting paradigm on what we consider artistic in postcolonial times.